Jürgen Klopp’s men will be aiming to extend their Premier League unbeaten run at Anfield on Sunday. We look ahead with our data-powered Liverpool vs Fulham prediction and preview.
Liverpool vs Fulham: The Quick Hits
- Liverpool are huge favourites to maintain their 100% start at Anfield with another victory on Sunday, predicted to win 63.6% of the time by the Opta supercomputer.
- Only Wolves (five) have conceded more penalty goals than Fulham (four) in the division this season, while no team has scored more from the spot without conceding one than Liverpool (three).
- Fulham haven’t won any of their last six away Premier League games (D3 L3), though their most recent victory on the road was on Merseyside in August, a 1-0 win at Everton.
Match Preview
Liverpool will look to keep touch with the Premier League summit when they welcome Fulham to Anfield on Sunday.
A Trent Alexander-Arnold equaliser was enough to earn a 1-1 draw at title rivals Manchester City last weekend, leaving Liverpool two points and two places behind early leaders Arsenal in the league table.
With Arsenal and Man City both at home this weekend as well, against Wolves and Tottenham respectively, it’s vital Liverpool don’t slip up on Sunday, with the Reds looking to make it seven wins from their first seven home league games this season.
Liverpool have won 19 Premier League matches in 2023 and registered at least 20 wins in all seven previous full years under Jürgen Klopp’s management. They last won 20+ league games for eight years in a row between 1971 and 1980 (10 in a row), while only two managers have ever won 20+ Premier League games in eight successive calendar years: Arsene Wenger (13, 1998-2010) and Sir Alex Ferguson (eight, 2005-12).
Sunday could be a game where Liverpool need Mohamed Salah, who after not scoring or assisting in any of his first four Premier League appearances in 2023, has now managed 22 goals and 13 assists in his last 31.
Only Salah himself (40 in 2018) and Luis Suárez (37 in 2013) have ever registered more Premier League goals and assists combined in a calendar year for the Reds, while only Alexander-Arnold (17 in 2019) has managed more assists in a year.
Part of Liverpool’s success has been their ability to come from behind, losing just one of their last 11 Premier League games when conceding first (W4 D6), which was after going 2-1 down in the 96th minute at Spurs in September after having two players sent off. They have won the most points from losing positions in the competition this season (12).
Eight of Fulham’s last nine Premier League goals have come in the second half, though Liverpool have conceded just three goals after half-time in the top flight this season, failing to win any of those three games (D2 L1).
Fulham have done well on Merseyside in recent times, winning four of their last five away league games against Everton and Liverpool, having taken maximum points on just one of their first 55 such visits in the league beforehand.
The Cottagers head to Anfield on the back of a 3-2 home win over Wolves on Monday, with Willian scoring a pair of spot-kicks to clinch the three points in a topsy-turvy encounter. Only Arsenal’s (seven) Premier League games have seen more penalties scored than Fulham’s this season (six).
Marco Silva will be looking to capitalise on the extra rest his team have had ahead of Sunday’s game, with six days passing between Monday’s win and kick-off this weekend, while Liverpool were involved in UEFA Europa League action on Thursday, thumping Austrian side LASK 4-0 at Anfield to secure their progression as Group E winners. Salah scored his 199th Liverpool goal in that match, and he will have his sights set on reaching his double century this weekend; he also only needs one goal to break into the Premier League’s top 10 all-time leading scorers.
But Klopp will be without a number of key players for Sunday’s game, with first-choice goalkeeper Alisson and Diogo Jota both out for several weeks with muscle injuries while Thiago Alcântara and Andrew Robertson remain long-term absentees.
João Palhinha’s return from a one-game suspension served against Wolves is a huge boost to Fulham, though Issa Diop, Adama Traoré and Rodrigo Muniz are all out injured and unavailable this weekend.
Liverpool vs Fulham Head-to-Head
Liverpool have lost just one of their last 10 Premier League games against Fulham (W7 D2), a 1-0 home loss in March 2021.
Fulham have scored just four goals in 16 Premier League away games against Liverpool, and never more than once in a match. It’s the lowest goals-per-game ratio (0.25) of any team to play more than 10 away games against an opponent in the competition.
The most recent meeting between the two clubs was back in May, with Mohamed Salah scoring for the eighth home game in a row, converting a penalty in the 39th minute as Liverpool claimed a 1-0 victory.
Recent Form
Liverpool’s win over LASK on Thursday was just their second in their last five in all competitions, though they have now scored in 12 consecutive games, netting two or more in 10 of those outings.
Since a 1-0 defeat to Fulham at Anfield in March 2021, which at the time was their sixth consecutive league defeat suffered on home soil, Liverpool have lost just one of their last 48 Premier League matches at Anfield (W37 D10) – a 2-1 loss to Leeds United in October 2022.
Fulham’s 3-2 win over Wolves on Monday was a much-needed victory, their first since early October, moving them 10 points clear of the Premier League’s bottom three. It was also just the second time all season that Silva’s men had scored three or more in a league game.
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
Liverpool vs Fulham Opta Player Ratings
The Opta Player Ratings are something we introduced ahead of 2023-24. For a quick primer on how they’re calculated, you can check our explainer here.
Before kick-off in this match, here are the top five performing players from both teams in the 2023-24 Premier League according to the Opta Player Ratings:
Liverpool
Alisson: 78.6 (out of 100)
Mohamed Salah: 77.8
Dominik Szoboszlai: 76.3
Andrew Robertson: 73.1
Virgil van Dijk: 71.8
Fulham
Bernd Leno: 69.5 (out of 100)
João Palhinha: 63.3
Tom Cairney: 62.8
Willian: 61.6
Alex Iwobi: 61.5
These Opta Player Ratings also power our set of brand-new, free-to-play gaming experiences, which you can play on Opta Analyst all season long.
Liverpool vs Fulham Prediction
Liverpool are the second-biggest favourites among the Premier League’s action on Matchday 14, with their 63.6% probability of victory only bettered by Manchester City (67%) at home to Spurs, according to the Opta supercomputer.
Fulham are given just a 13.7% chance of picking up a shock away win at Anfield, while the teams shared the spoils in 22.7% of the 10,000 simulations conducted ahead of this weekend.
Liverpool are third, yet they are given a higher chance of winning the Premier League title than current leaders Arsenal, with their likelihood of lifting the famous trophy rated at 10.2% compared to the Gunners’ 9.3%.
However, both are predicted to finish behind Man City, who win the title 79.3% of the time. Fulham, meanwhile, are expected to end the campaign comfortably mid-table, relegated in just 1% of simulations, with 12th their most-likely finishing spot.
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